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Mental health disorders accounted for more hospitalizations among active-duty personnel than any other medical ailment in 2012, according to data from the Pentagon. "The increase in mental health hospitalizations is most likely influenced by exposure of service members to stressful events associated with deployment" to Afghanistan and Iraq, said Army Lt. Col. Catherine Wilkinson, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

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The Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs have made progress in promoting mental health care, but a stigma persists among active-duty troops and veterans, panelists said at a symposium last week in Washington, D.C. Service members also have concerns about being put on medications. "Issues of mental health are hard to address. People don't want to be seen as a weak link," said retired Army Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, who now works with the D.C. Department of Mental Health.

The Pentagon said Thursday that reports of sexual assaults across all military branches increased 46% during the last fiscal year. The increase could suggest that fewer instances of sexual assault are going unreported. "We assess this as a sign of victim confidence in our response system," said Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Catherine Wilkinson.

Just over half of suicides by active-duty military personnel from 2008 to 2011 involve those who were never deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, according to data released by the Pentagon. The figures present a challenge to the commonly held belief that the recent rise in military suicides is related directly to repeated deployments to combat zones.

The hospitalization rate for active-duty service members with mental disorders more than doubled from 2006 to 2012, according to a report from the Pentagon's medical community published last month. Mental disorders accounted for nearly half of all hospital bed days involving service members, the report said.

Mental disorders were the No. 1 cause of hospitalization for active-duty military personnel in 2011 for the second year in a row, according to a report released by the Defense Department. The number of service members hospitalized for illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression increased 19% in 2011. Pregnancy-related conditions and childbirth were the second most common cause of hospitalization, the report found.